 |
Tatsuya Ichihashi — who spent more than two-and-a-half years on the run after the 2007 crime and had plastic surgery to evade capture — had admitted raping his English teacher but said he killed the 22-year-old accidentally.
But presiding judge Masaya Hotta said Ichihashi strangled Hawker for at least three minutes, reflecting “clear premeditation to kill.”
As the judge read out the ruling, a motionless Ichihashi stared at the ground, NTV reported, while Hawker’s family repeatedly wiped tears from their eyes and nodded in approval.
Bill Hawker, the victim’s father, said he was pleased with the verdict, although he had earlier asked the court to hand down the death sentence.
“We waited four-and-a-half years to get justice for Lindsay. We have achieved that,” he told journalists after the ruling.
Accompanied by Lindsay’s mother and their two daughters, he also thanked Japanese police who he said “never, ever stopped looking for Ichihashi.”
He added: “Lindsay loved Japan, and you have not let her down.”
The judge said Ichihashi killed Hawker to cover up the rape, adding that he rejected the killer’s claim of remorse because of his determined efforts to avoid capture.
“We cannot find words” to describe the tragedy of Hawker’s death, the judge told the court, adding that the victim’s life ended “in a hopeless situation at the age of 22, when life should be full of possibilities.”
Prosecutors had demanded life for Ichihashi, who was a student at an English-language school where Walker taught, during the case.
Hawker’s father Bill had earlier urged the Chiba district court to show “no mercy” and called for the death penalty — a punishment usually reserved for cases of multiple homicide.
Hawker’s parents gave testimony during Ichihashi’s July 4-12 trial. The body of their daughter Lindsay, from a village near Coventry in central England, was found naked and bound at the wrists and ankles in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony of Ichihashi’s apartment.
The autopsy showed she died of suffocation, and prosecutors said Ichihashi strangled her after the rape.
Ichihashi testified that after raping her, he bound her and spoke to her for hours, seeking forgiveness. He says she choked to death when he covered her mouth to stop her from screaming for help but he did not mean to kill her.
After the killing, Ichihashi went on the run, working odd jobs between Aomori in Japan’s north and Okinawa island in the far south.
He used his wages to pay for cosmetic surgery, altering his eyelids and nose and having a facial mole removed in an effort to evade capture.
Ichihashi, whose wanted poster was plastered across police stations and public offices throughout Japan, was caught in November 2009 after a witness tip-off at a ferry terminal as he tried to catch a boat to Okinawa.